Travel seems to be on the rise in the US as the latest statistics from the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, reported a record number of passengers over Memorial Day Weekend. The numbers collected show that the TSA screened more than 7 million people from Thursday to Monday, with Friday having the highest number of travelers passing through an airport security check since the start of the pandemic, back in March 2020.
Roughly 1.96 million were screened, with a slight drop on Saturday and Sunday with about 1.6 million on each day. On Monday the number rose again to 1.9 million passengers.
According to Travel + Leisure, the increased air travel numbers are most likely a reflection of the high number of vaccinated US residents. About 61% of American adults have received one shot of the vaccine, while roughly 50% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid Data Tracker
The US has also been reporting its lowest Covid-19 numbers since the start of the pandemic. CNBC reports that the seven-day average of new daily cases is close to 19,000, the lowest since the pandemic emerged in March 2020.
Certain health and safety measures, however, continue to be observed at airports across the country. The federal mandate requiring travelers to wear a face mask on all public transportation applies to all travelers until September.
The number of travelers going through TSA has been on the rise over the past few months. In May, the TSA reported 1.6 million travelers in a single day, which was a record during the pandemic.
